MPPSC 2025 Prelims Paper-I · Question 80 of 100

Correct — D, Godavari. At about 1,465 km the Godavari is the longest of the four and the longest river of peninsular India — long enough to have earned the name Dakshina Ganga, the Ganga of the South, and to be the longest river flowing entirely within India (the Ganga is longer overall but leaves the country). It rises at Trimbakeshwar in the Brahmagiri hills of Nashik district, Maharashtra, runs east across the Deccan through Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and reaches the Bay of Bengal through a wide delta below Rajahmundry. Its basin, about 3.13 lakh sq km, is also the largest of any peninsular river.

• (a)Narmada — About 1,312 km — India's longest west-flowing river and Madhya Pradesh's lifeline, rising at Amarkantak and entering the Gulf of Khambhat through an estuary. Long, but roughly 150 km short of the Godavari.
• (b)Cauvery (Kaveri) — About 800 km — the shortest of the four. It rises at Talakaveri in Kodagu, Karnataka, and reaches the Bay of Bengal in Tamil Nadu; its fame in water-sharing disputes has nothing to do with its length.
• (c)Krishna — About 1,400 km — second longest here and the closest competitor. It rises near Mahabaleshwar in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra and also drains into the Bay of Bengal, but it is roughly 65 km shorter than the Godavari.

Peninsular rivers are geologically old, largely rain-fed and flow in shallow, well-adjusted valleys. Most run east into the Bay of Bengal — Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery, Pennar — because the Western Ghats form the main water divide close to the west coast. The exceptions are the Narmada and the Tapi, which flow west into the Arabian Sea through rift valleys. By length the peninsular order is Godavari (about 1,465 km), Krishna (about 1,400), Narmada (about 1,312), Mahanadi (about 851), Cauvery (about 800) and Tapi (about 724).

Read the stem for its scope. It asks for the longest among four peninsular rivers, not the longest in India — that is the Ganga. MPPSC recycles this question shape almost verbatim: in 2024 the four options were Cauvery, Tapti, Narmada and Son and the answer was Narmada; in 2018 the question was the longest river in India and the answer was the Ganga. Memorising the six peninsular lengths in order answers all three versions.

• Godavari — about 1,465 km, the longest peninsular river ('Dakshina Ganga') and the second longest river in India after the Ganga
• Source: Trimbakeshwar in the Brahmagiri hills, Nashik district, Maharashtra; mouth: the Bay of Bengal through the delta below Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh
• Largest peninsular river basin — about 3.13 lakh sq km across Maharashtra (the biggest share), Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Puducherry (Yanam)
• Length order of the four options: Godavari ~1,465 km > Krishna ~1,400 km > Narmada ~1,312 km > Cauvery ~800 km
• Main tributaries: Pranhita (the largest, carrying the Wardha-Wainganga-Penganga waters), Indravati, Manjira and Sabari — the Wainganga rises in Madhya Pradesh

• 'Longest river' versus 'longest river in India' versus 'longest west-flowing river' — Godavari, Ganga and Narmada respectively
• Guessing by fame — the Krishna is only about 65 km shorter, and the Cauvery, despite its prominence, is the shortest of the four
• Basin rankings are quoted differently in different sources: the Godavari basin is unambiguously the largest in the peninsula, but whether it is India's second or third largest depends on whether the Indian portion of the Indus basin is counted
• Two different Brahmagiri hills — the Godavari's source lies in the Brahmagiri range at Trimbakeshwar (Nashik), the Cauvery's at Talakaveri on Brahmagiri hill in Kodagu

MPPSC asks it as a bare superlative or a four-river comparison and repeats it across years, sometimes swapping in Son or Tapti. UPSC prefers the ordered version — put these rivers in descending order of length — or asks which streams are tributaries of a named river.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Godavari river rises at Trimbakeshwar, in which state?

  • (a)Madhya Pradesh
  • (b)Maharashtra
  • (c)Karnataka
  • (d)Telangana

  Answer(b) Maharashtra — in the Brahmagiri hills of Nashik district.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which of the following is the largest river basin of peninsular India?

  • (a)Krishna
  • (b)Mahanadi
  • (c)Godavari
  • (d)Narmada

  Answer(c) Godavari — about 3.13 lakh sq km, well ahead of the Krishna basin.